The Daily 5: Management
Don't try to implement these ideas on your own! Go buy the book! And be sure to check out the official site of "the sisters!"
The Daily 5 provides an AWESOME management system for the Reading Block.
Here are some photos and information on how I managed this system during the 2008-2009 school year:
Here are our Anchor Charts:
Click the pictures to view or right click to download a larger version.
Click here to download a sorting activity (cut/paste) I made to assess students on their understanding of Real Reading vs. "Fake" Reading - could be a useful assessment piece after completing the I-Charts for Daily 5. I saw an idea for this anchor chart in Debbie Diller's book, Spaces and Places but decided to do something different with the idea. [Real Readers.doc]
Once we built enough stamina in all 5 areas (this took us 6 weeks instead of the 5 recommended in the book), we started guided reading groups. Here is the chart I used to rotate my groups each day:
Click the picture to view or right click to download a larger version. Each colored card represents a reading group. Everyone did the same Daily 5 activity at the same time while I pulled groups. The colored "work with teacher" card moved each day so they were never missing the same component of Daily 5 multiple days in a row.
Word Work and Listen to Reading shared a time slot. They were to "make" all ten of their spelling words using whatever manipulative material they select and then move on to Listen to Reading.
You learn from experience - I will not do this again. This year I intend to go directly into student choice.
Once we were good at doing it this way, I started using two or three pocket charts and gave the kids each a set of Daily 5 cards to make their choices each morning:
I place the colored "meet with teacher" cards ahead of time to signify when they are to meet with me so they don't make a choice for that time. In the above photo, some students do not have "meet with teacher" cards because I was working on DRA testing when I took this photo and was not doing guided reading groups. (The red cards are "meet with teacher" cards for a group that meets with my student teacher.)
All students MUST do "Work on Writing" and "Read to Self" every day. Then they can select from the other choices to fill in the blanks.
Here are a couple of links where I downloaded posters, choice cards, etc that are seen in the photos:
Again, you learn from experience. I won't be using a choice chart this year. I plan to use a clipboard and call out each name to make a choice to make the kids more accountable. There is a reason the Sisters do it that way and now I know why!
Here is another site with what I think is a very cool idea for managing choices:
For 2009-2010, I am going to do things differently. I want to use Words Their Way for my spelling instruction and I want everyone to do Work on Writing right away after our vocabulary lesson. Here is my plan (subject to change, of course!)...
I also plan to give my students smaller version of the I-charts to fill in as we learn the skills for each of the Daily 5 tasks. They will keep these in their reading folders and can refer to them. I am hoping that actually writing the I-charts themselves will help them internalize the expectations even more. I hope to scan these soon and add them to this page for download. They were made partially on the computer but I hand drew the "I" so I need to scan them in.
PS - I love the idea of using one solid color (I chose green - almost the same color as the background of this page) and black borders in my classroom - another idea from the Daily 5 book. Click the picture below to purchase black bordette for your classroom!
Website visitors can help our classroom by purchasing items from my Amazon Wishlist or making a PayPal donation - all donations and ad revenue received on this site are spent on classroom books and other materials.
Parents - you can also help our classroom by purchasing books for your child from Scholastic book orders. Many books are $2 or less! Every order placed earns bonus points which I use to purchase books and other classroom materials. Every monthly order totaling $20 or more earns us a coupon for $10 in free books for our classroom. If you order online, I get an additional free book pick, which I will use to select a book for your child!
Click the link below to place an order! Username and password are both "maiolo." FGCU students, feel free to order as well! This is a very inexpensive way to get books for your future classroom!
THANKS! Questions? Comments? Feel free to email me.
